Artificial tree as fruit basket

ABSTRACT

The present invention relates to an artificial tree as fruit basket for daily household service which is more effective and convenient to use, with high grade of imitation and ease of manufacture. It comprises an artificial tree comprising a trunk, a decorative crown and at least one naked branch, and a base. The decorative crown of the artificial tree has at least one selected from the group of artificial branches, artificial twigs, artificial leaves, artificial fruits and artificial flowers, and has no fruit holding provision. The at least one naked branch is disposed on and near the top of the trunk and below the decorative crown of the artificial tree and functions as a fruit hanging provision. The base is located at the bottom of the trunk of the artificial tree and functions as a fruit container.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to an artificial tree as fruit basket for daily household service which is more effective and convenient to use, with high grade of imitation and low cost for manufacture.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Fruit basket and artificial tree are both commonplace household articles. Large amount of prior art has been endeavoring to combine them to enhance the product in both functional and decorative aspects as presented below.

GB 1477158 (A) discloses an artificial tree with rings and hooks stemmed from the branches or trunk to put or suspend fruit. All the fruits are held in the tree and there is no fruit holding provision at the bottom.

GB 2497306 (A) discloses an artificial plant with different forms of fruit hanging provisions, such as nest, basket, hook, spoon-like shape, net, peg-like shape, to display fruits, vegetables and flowers. All the fruits, vegetables and flowers are held in the tree and there is no fruit holding provision at the bottom.

U.S. Pat. No. 6,854,609 B1 discloses a hanging fruit tree construction comprising a circular base unit with raised side walls to receive fruits, a shaft unit, and a plurality of limb units with fruit stem engaging units. The fruit stem engaging units are composed of a number of parts and cannot be used conveniently. The connection of the dowels to the shaft unit by a recess makes it a weak design. The limb units, mainly composed of straight rod dowels, are simply a hanging structure by nature and can hardly be imagined to resemble the crown of a tree. Even taken to form the crown of a tree, they lack twigs, leaves, or flowers and are poor in appearance. Nevertheless, they are inconvenient to use and complex to make.

CN 201085437 Y discloses an artificial bonsai tree with hooks stemmed from the branches to suspend fruits. The pot below the tree is not intended for fruits. All the fruits are held in the tree.

CN 202014943 U discloses a scenic bonsai like artificial tree with net bags attached from the branches to hold fruits and a bowl at the bottom loaded with pebbles, water, and fish. One may assume the bowl below the tree can be used to hold fruits, however to do that one needs first to verify if the bowl is suitable for this purpose and second to get rid of the pebbles, water, and fish and third to figure out how to dispose of the pebbles and the fish. All these are not something obvious and easy for general users of the product. Ascertainably it is intended only for ornament but utility. Eventually, fruits can only be held in the tree, more specifically, the net bags.

CN 105078117 A discloses an artificial tree as fruit rack with rings attached to the branches to hold fruits. There is no fruit holding provision at the bottom. All the fruits are held in the tree.

CN 105662045 A discloses a fruit plate with an tree-like rack stemmed from the center of it. There have a plurality of leaf-shaped auxiliary fruit trays on the rack. Fruits can be held in the trays and the plate. The rack above the plate can not be regarded as an artificial tree due to its poor construction.

U.S. D616,252 S, U.S. D648,184 S, U.S. D670,970 S, U.S. D671,371 S, U.S. D697,374 S and U.S. D698,204 S disclose, nominally, designs of fruit bowl and tree combinations. In fact what they provide are only wire made fruit bowl and fruit hanging structure. Nothing like a tree can be found therein.

With the prior art quite some drawbacks can be found such as ineffectiveness and inconvenience for use, lack of close imitation, and difficulty for manufacture. The reasons behind can be summarized as follows.

Firstly, fruit holding mechanisms in the prior art, such as ring, clip, hook, net, peg, etc., if sized for single or a number of fruits, are inherently inefficient and inconvenient to use which limits the unit to be only suitable for special events not daily use.

Secondly, fruit holding mechanisms in the prior art, such as leaf shaped tray or a hanging bowl, if sized for a large number of fruits, when fruits are being placed, weight load will be concentrated, caution has to be taken to keep the balance of the unit.

Thirdly, this category of product for home use generally has limited size. Plus the two reasons mentioned above, the quantity of fruit it can be used for is also limited.

Moreover, the structural material for branches/twigs of artificial tree is typically plastic, wood, and wire. They are not intended for real fruit which is fairly heavy comparing to artificial leaves and artificial fruits/flowers. To hold real fruit in the tree, more specifically on the branches/twigs in the crown, stronger structural material or construction has to be adopted. The consequence is that the artificial tree loses imitation of a real tree and the manufacture process becomes more costly.

Last but not least, these apparently man-made fruit holding mechanisms are fairly visible to people. As a result, when not being used for real fruit storage and display, these fruit holding mechanisms will hinder the product from serving as a decorative ornament in the home.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is the object of the present invention to overcome the above mentioned drawbacks by providing an artificial tree and fruit basket combination which is efficient and convenient for daily use and with very close imitation of a real tree and ease of manufacture.

The present invention discloses an artificial tree as fruit basket comprising an artificial tree comprising a trunk, a decorative crown and at least one naked branch, and a base. The decorative crown of the artificial tree has at least one selected from the group of artificial branches, artificial twigs, artificial leaves, artificial fruits and artificial flowers, and has no fruit holding provision. The at least one naked branch is disposed on and near the top of the trunk and below the decorative crown of the artificial tree and functions as a fruit hanging provision. The base is located at the bottom of the trunk of the artificial tree and functions as a fruit container.

The rod like structure of the trunk and the naked branch on and near the top of the trunk makes this portion the strongest of the artificial tree. In addition, the at least one naked branch is on the trunk and thus close to the center of gravity of the unit, when bunch fruits are being hung onto it, there will be no risk of losing balance of the unit. All these make here the most suitable place to hang bunch fruits.

More importantly, the base functioning as fruit container combined with the naked branch functioning as fruit hanging provision turn out to be the most effective and convenient for the storage and display of a large number of fruits. This will relieve the user of the arduous effort of putting fruits to the various fruit holding mechanisms and thus make the unit suitable for daily household service.

Since all the fruits are hung from the naked branch functioning as fruit hanging provision or put in the base functioning as fruit container, the decorative crown of the artificial tree, more specifically the branches/twigs in the crown, is released from the weight load of the fruits. This way, the structural material of the decorative crown can be any proper material, such as plastics, wood, and wire, normally used in the artificial flower/tree industry so that it can achieve very close imitation of a real tree while maintaining ease of manufacture and keeping cost low.

In addition, with the high grade of imitation thus achieved and without the remarkably visible fruit holding mechanisms in the decorative crown of the artificial tree, when not being used for fruit storage and display, the unit can serve as a very decorative ornament in the home.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In the drawings which illustrate embodiment of the invention:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the artificial tree as fruit basket shown with the trunk of the artificial tree located at the center of the base and artificial fruits in the decorative crown of the artificial tree.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the artificial tree as fruit basket shown with the trunk of the artificial tree located at the edge of the base and artificial flowers in the decorative crown of the artificial tree.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Referring to FIG. 1, the artificial tree as fruit basket disclosed by the present invention comprises an artificial tree 1 comprising a trunk 1-1, a decorative crown 1-2 and at least one naked branch 1-3, and a base 2. The decorative crown 1-2 of the artificial tree 1 has at least one selected from the group of artificial branches, artificial twigs, artificial leaves, artificial fruits and artificial flowers, and has no fruit holding provision. The at least one naked branch 1-3 is disposed on and near the top of the trunk 1-1 and below the decorative crown 1-2 and functions as a fruit hanging provision. The base 2 is located at the bottom of the trunk 1-1 of the artificial tree 1 and functions as a fruit container.

In this embodiment of the present invention, the trunk 1-1 of the artificial tree 1 is located at the center of the base 2 and artificial fruits are included in the decorative crown 1-2 of the artificial tree 1.

Referring to FIG. 2, the artificial tree as fruit basket disclosed by the present invention comprises an artificial tree 1 comprising a trunk 1-1, a decorative crown 1-2 and at least one naked branch 1-3, and a base 2. The decorative crown 1-2 of the artificial tree 1 has at least one selected from the group of artificial branches, artificial twigs, artificial leaves, artificial fruits and artificial flowers, and has no fruit holding provision. The at least one naked branch 1-3 is disposed on and near the top of the trunk 1-1 and below the decorative crown 1-2 and functions as a fruit hanging provision. The base 2 is located at the bottom of the trunk 1-1 of the artificial tree 1 and functions as a fruit container.

In this embodiment of the present invention, the trunk 1-1 of the artificial tree 1 is located at the edge of the base 2 and artificial flowers are included in the decorative crown 1-2 of the artificial tree 1.

It is understood that the foregoing description is illustrative of the present invention and should not be considered as limiting. It should thus be appreciated that other ways of embodiment of the present invention by variations to the invention, such as the location of the trunk of the artificial tree in the base, the inclusion of artificial fruits or artificial flowers, the kind of tree, the shape of the base, the materials and colors of the parts, including any combination of these variations, readily apparent to those having ordinary skills in the art, are possible and will be within the spirit and scope of the invention as claimed. 

Hereby I claim:
 1. An artificial tree as fruit basket comprising: an artificial tree comprising a trunk, a decorative crown and at least one naked branch; and a base wherein the decorative crown of the artificial tree has at least one selected from the group of artificial branches, artificial twigs, artificial leaves, artificial fruits and artificial flowers, and has no fruit holding provision, the at least one naked branch is disposed on and near the top of the trunk and below the decorative crown of the artificial tree and functions as a fruit hanging provision, the base is located at the bottom of the trunk of the artificial tree and functions as a fruit container.
 2. The artificial tree as fruit basket recited in claim 1 wherein the trunk of the artificial tree is located at the center of the base and artificial fruits are included in the decorative crown of the artificial tree.
 3. The artificial tree as fruit basket recited in claim 1 wherein the trunk of the artificial tree is located at the edge of the base and artificial flowers are included in the decorative crown of the artificial tree. 